The Tupolev Tu-22 (Air Standardization Coordinating Committee name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union.

[1] Among its features was the selection of a single pilot with no copilot, which allowed the cockpit to be narrower, as only one person had to be seated forward to see the runway.

[2] As the engines possibly would not meet their goals and leave the 105 underpowered, much attention was spent on cleaning up the aerodynamics to reach the required speed.

[a] This led to the decision to move the engines from the wing roots, as in the Tu-16, to an unconventional external tail-mounted position, on either side of the vertical stabilizer.

Around this time, TsAGI read KGB intelligence reports about the area rule for minimizing transonic aerodynamic drag, and this design was applied to 105.

A key problem was that the wing root was too thick to properly exploit this effect and to further thin it, a new landing-gear design was introduced,[further explanation needed] along with several more changes to the layout of the cabin and tail areas.

22 at Kazan, flew on 22 September 1960,[9] and the type was presented to the public in the Tushino Aviation Day parade on 9 July 1961, with a flypast of 10 aircraft.

Amongst its many faults was a tendency for aerodynamic heating of the aircraft skin at supersonic speed, distorting the control rods and causing poor handling.

While the Tu-22 was being introduced, the Strategic Rocket Forces branch was created in 1959, and Tupolev, along with other project backers, understood that manned bombers were falling out of favor as a means of delivering nuclear weapons.

[7] To save the program, Tupolev proposed a long-range aerial reconnaissance version of the aircraft, which could be modified in the field to return it to a bombing role.

[14] Some of these aircraft were stripped of their cameras and sensor packs and sold for export as Tu-22Bs, although in other respects, they apparently remained more comparable to the Tu-22R than to the early-production Tu-22Bs.

Continuing a Tupolev OKB design feature, the main landing gear are mounted in pods at the trailing edge of each wing.

[4] The Tu-22's cockpit placed the pilot forward, offset slightly to the left, with the weapons officer behind and the navigator below, within the fuselage, sitting on downwards-firing ejector seats.

The downward direction meant the minimum altitude for ejection was 350 m (1,150 ft), which precluded their use during take-off and landing, when most accidents occur.

Adding to its problems was a very high panel on the right, which blocked the view of the runway during landing if the aircraft had to crab against a wind from the left.

This cooling was provided by a large total-loss evaporator running on a mixture of 40% ethanol and 60% distilled water (effectively vodka).

[24] Numerous cases of Tu-22 crews drinking the coolant mixture and becoming paralytically drunk led to a crackdown by Soviet Air Force authorities.

The Tu-22's defensive armament, operated by the weapons officer, consisted of a remotely controlled tail turret beneath the engine pods, containing a single 23 mm (0.906 in) R-23 gun.

[25] The turret was directed by a small PRS-3A Argon gun-laying radar due to the weapons officer's total lack of rear visibility (and generally much more accurate and precise fire control than optical aiming).

[16] Some Tu-22Rs were fitted with the Kub ELINT system, and later with an under-fuselage pallet for M-202 Shompol side-looking airborne radar, as well as cameras and an infrared line scanner.

A few Tu-22Ks were modified to Tu-22KP or Tu-22KPD configuration with Kurs-N SIGINT equipment to detect enemy radar systems and provide compatibility with the Kh-22P antiradiation missile.

[20] The Libyan Arab Republic Air Force used the Tu-22 in combat against Tanzania in 1979 as part of the Uganda–Tanzania War to help its Ugandan allies, with a single Tu-22 flying a completely unsuccessful bombing mission against Mwanza on 29 March 1979.

On 17 February 1986, in retaliation for the French Operation Épervier (which had hit the runway of the Libyan Ouadi Doum Airbase one day earlier), a single Tu-22B attacked the airfield at N'Djamena.

Staying under French radar coverage by flying low over the desert for more than 1,100 km (700 mi), it accelerated to over Mach 1, climbed to 5,000 m (16,500 ft) and dropped three heavy bombs.

Despite the considerable speed and height, the attack was extremely precise; two bombs hit the runway, one demolished the taxiway, and the airfield remained closed for several hours as a consequence.

[33] One bomber was shot down by captured 2K12 Kub (SA-6) surface-to-air missiles during a bombing attack on an abandoned Libyan base at Aouzou on 8 August 1987.

A French battery of MIM-23 Hawk SAMs of the 402nd Air Defence Regiment shot down one of the bombers, killing the East German crew.

[40] Iraq deployed its Tu-22s during the War of the Cities (along with Tu-16s, Su-22s and MiG-25s), flying air-raids against Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, with these attacks supplemented by Iraqi Scud and Al Hussein missiles.

Usage of the FAB-9000 was so heavy that the Iraqis ran low of imported Soviet stocks and resorted to manufacturing their own version, called the Nassir-9.

Radar-jamming Tu-22PD aircraft covered Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bombers operating from the Mary-2 airfield in the Turkmen SSR on missions in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.